Classes are now truly underway and it's interesting to see how different second year is from first. A year ago we were huddled in breakouts rooms working on the Tweeter case; this year I am happily almost free of "group work," except for one or two projects. For those of you considering business school, get prepared to do more group projects than grade school, including passing out cupcakes, making posters with glitter, and even considering dioramas (all things I did as a first-year MBA).
I know, we're supposed to learn how it is in the real world where cross-functional teams (make you sure you have that word on your resume, btw) are increasingly prevalent and you have to learn to be an efficient and good leader--or follower. And i'm sure that someday i'll be glad that I was trained in this delicate art...well, maybe.
So as the first-years emerge bleary-eyed from their breakout rooms, I hope they can be cheered by the thought that there is a future that includes business school learning without group work. And for the time being I am so glad to be relying on my own brain, unreliable though it may be. I have taken to completing my readings and homework assignment on my couch instead of at Sage Hall, with The Hills on in the background and only sometimes relying on my neighbors for free internet.

Tonight's the first night I've been able to pull myself away to write between seeing old friends, packing, and eating the lean pockets my subleaser left in my freezer! I have begun to accept that I don't really need to put away the 500 Costco items my dad and I loaded into my car as I set out from Chicago to Ithaca last week.

Across the Illinois plains and the Ohio valley, my friend Annie and I caravaned (it's a word) past lakes, BP refineries, and cities until we reached that familiar entrance to Ithaca, route 13. We passed the former site of Collegetown Bagels, now a melancholy, unlit shack next to the gleaming Dunkin' Donuts (vive la competition!) and headed up the hill to our respective apartments. After a summer spent in the trenches throwing around p's and c's in varying amounts, it is nice to be back in Ithaca again.

I'm a second-year MBA student from Chicago, IL, concentrating in brand management. I spent the summer interning with ConAgra Foods working on an innovation project for the Manwich brand. Prior to business school, I was an editor at Regnery Publishing in Washington, D.C., where I edited several books including Steve Forbes's Flat Tax Revolution, Samuel Cook's Freedom in the Workplace, and the Heritage Foundation's Guide to the American Constitution. Before this, I was a legislative correspondent in U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald's office, handling the tax, banking, budget, transportation, education, and commerce issue areas.